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Episode 722: Cold-Calling Ned Garver
Date September 10, 2015 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails, come across a baseball mystery, and get answers straight from a primary source. Topics * Paying pitchers per start * Staying in the rotation with a high ERA * Games with nine or more pitchers * Interview with Ned Garver * Experimenting with pitcher use * Bill Veeck * Ned's player payment proposal * Ned's hitting performance * Ned Garver vs. Ted Williams * Ned's military service Intro Frank Sinatra & Doris Day, "Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk" Banter Ben and Sam tried to record an episode the other day but Sam's voice did not save on the recording. This previously happened when recording Episode 235. Email Questions * Tom: "Your discussion about how much you'd pay Matt Harvey (in Episode 720) to pitch out the season and postseason got me thinking, what if a pitcher agree to sign for the minimum with a playing time bonus that paid him $X per start? This would be highly unorthodox but doesn't seem like it would violate the CBA which allows playing time based bonuses. The team would have to deal with payroll uncertainty but would have much less exposure to injury risk and could shut him down to save money if the season was lost. The player could probably get substantially more per start than on a guaranteed contract. Do you see this ever making sense, ignoring league or union objections? How much could an ace like David Price get per start?" * Wes: "What's the highest ERA an undefeated starter could have and retain his job? If you're 10-0 in 10 starts with a 7.00 ERA are you still in the rotation? 8? 9? At what point does ERA stop mattering and you just get to start every fifth day no matter how terrible you look. 14-0? 15-0? More?" Play Index * Sam wanted to see if games games with a high number of pitchers used were trending upwards because of increased use of September call-ups. He searched the Play Index for games with nine or more pitchers used. * There were 22 games in 2014 where a single team used nine or more pitchers. * Sam finds a 1949 game where the St. Louis Browns used nine pitchers for one inning each on the last game of the season. Notes * Sam thinks the problem with per-start payments for starters is that the team and pitcher would have very different priorities and interests towards the end of the season. In addition, teams may be willing to take on more risk and uncertainty whereas players want a guaranteed contract. * Sam thinks that if a pitcher had a Gonny Jomes-like record and could not lose despite a high ERA, that teams would have to leave him in the rotation until he lost a game. * Ben's favorite high ERA season is Shawn Chacon's 2004 season. He had 35 saves with a 7.11 ERA. * Ned thinks that it was the idea of the pitchers to have a game where the pitchers threw only one inning each. * Of the Browns, Ned says "We would get eliminated in about July." * Ned is the only modern pitcher in history to win 20 games on a team that lost 100 or more games (1951 season). Bill Veeck make sure to plan for Garver to pitch enough so that he had a chance of winning 20 games. * Ned says that later in his career he stopped trying to hit because he was worried about injuring himself and ending his pitching career. Early in his career he was often used as a pinch hitter. * Ted Williams hit .419 against Ned Garver over his career, despite that Williams thought Garver was hard to hit. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 722: Cold-Calling Ned Garver * Chicago White Sox at St. Louis Browns: October 2, 1949 * Ned Garver vs. Early Wynn Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes